Door button



May 31, 1960 H. P. NEPTUNE DOOR BUTTON Filed May 31, 1957 INVENTOR, HERMAN I? NEPTUN J i I 4 r ATTORNEY United States Patent DOOR BUTTON Herman P. Neptune, 2204 Moreno Drive., Los Angeles 39, Calif.

Filed May 31, 1957, Ser. No. 662,909

1 Claim. (Cl. 292-204) The present invention relates to improvements in door buttons of the type which may be rotated so as to hold a door closed to its jamb or to release the door.

Door buttons with which the inventor is familiar as a rule do not maintain any selected rotative position if the door is permitted slight movement relative to its jamb.

The present invention contemplates and has as an object a door button so constructed and arranged as to, at all times, be in frictional engagement about its point of rotation with the door to which it is attached, with the result that the said button is prevented from creeping.

Other objects include a door button which is inexpensive in cost of manufacture, attractive in appearance, easily applied in position of service, and generally superior to door buttons now known to the inventor.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary view of a door and a jamb, with one form of the improved door button shown attached to the jamb and engaging the door for holding the door closed,

Figure 2 is a plan view, on an enlarged scale, of the door button shown in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a fragmentary side elevation, partly in section, of the door button of Figures 1 and 2,

Figure 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional View on the line 4-4 of Figure 1,

Figure 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional view on the line 55 of Figure 2,

Figure 6 is a fragmentary sectional view of a modified form of door button construction, and,

Figure 7 is a further modified form of door button shown in fragment and section.

The door button illustrated in Figures 1 to 5, inclusive, includes a hub 1, from which radiate, in diametric relationship, a pair of wings 2 and 3. The base flange 4 of the said hub merges with the base portions 5 and 6 of the said wings. This provides a surface which lies in one plane and which may engage or overlie the door or door jamb in accordance with use of the invention. Each wing is provided with a flange or rib 7 and 8, the flanges being arranged diametrically of the hub, with each flange dividing each wing intermediate its Width. As shown in Figure 3, the flanges have greater height than the depth of the hub 1. The huh I has its base flange 4 provided with two oppositely positioned arcuate slots 9 and It and with radial slots 11 and 12 which extend between the arcuate slots and the base flange periphery. The peripheral edge of the base flange 4 of the hub has the same curvature as the curvature of the slots 9 and 10 to provide a pair of spring fingers 13 and 14. The ends of the spring fingers adjacent the slots 11 and 12 are bent upwardly, as shown in Figure 3, at 15, and said spring fingers are, in each instance, bent downwardly relative to the plane of the base flange 4 of the hub. The hub is provided with an internal, conical surfaced flange 16, as see Figure 4. The central opening of the conical flange 1.6 is adapted to receive and permit passage therethrough of an elongated screw '17,

the conical surface of the screw head 18 being against a conical surface of the said flange 16. This screw is adapted to secure the door button either to the door or to the jamb and be so adjusted as to cause frictional engagement of the spring fingers 13 and 14 with the outer surface of said door or door jamb, as shown in Figure 4. The flanges 7 and 8 act as a convenient means whereby the fingers may grasp the same for the purpose of rotating the door button. It is quite obvious that the spring fingers in this form of the invention'will frictionally engage the surface of the door or door jamb and hold the door button in any defined position, and still not require great effort on the part of the operator to turn the door button.

In that form of the invention shown in Figure 6, the base flange 4 is not slotted, and a coil compression spring 19 is within the confines of the hub, and surrounds the screw 17. Obviously, tightening of the screw will compress the spring 19 between the flange 16 and the surface of the door or door jamb, and thereby cause resistance to rotation of the door button.

That form of the invention shown in Figure 7 difiers from Figure 6 in the provision of a tubular friction member 20, which may be formed of rubber or other compressionable material and which is confined within the hub and exerts pressure between the surface of the door or door jamb and the hub, so as to resist turning movement of the door button.

The operation, uses and advantages of the invention in its several embodiments are as follows:

As shown in Figure 1, the door button is mounted for rotation on the door jamb and is adapted to extend behind the door jamb for engagement with the door when in the position shown in said figure. Normally, the door engages a stop which limits its inward movement relative to the jamb. In the form of the invention shown in Figures 1-5, the spring fingers are brought into pressure engagement with the outer surface of the door jamb by tightening screw 17. Preferably, the wings 2 and 3 are spaced from the surface of the door jamb, as shown in Figure 3, with only the spring fingers engaging the jamb surface. Turning movement of the door button is easy to accomplish by the fingers grasping one or the other of the flanges 7 and 8, or both thereof. It is quite obvious that the spring fingers will hold the door button in any position of rotation desired and, therefore, a positive locking of the door relative to the jamb is at all times assured.

That form of the invention shown in Figures 6 and 7 operates on a similar principle, in that the spring 19, in one instance, and the friction washer or tubular member 20, in the second instance, has frictional engagement between the surface of the jamb and the conical flange 16. The resistance to turning the door button is, therefore, the same as that illustrated for that form of the invention in Figures 1 to 5.

In actual practice, it has been found that there is no tendency for the screw 17 to be unscrewed, resultant upon a turning of the door button, as the resistance to such an unscrewing movement is greater than the resistance offered by either the spring fingers "13 and 14, spring 19, or resistance member 20.

It is quite apparent that the environment of use for the said button will vary.

I claim:

A door button including: an annular hub, a pair of wings diametrically radiating from said annular hub, said annular hub and wings provided with a base flange lying in a single plane, said base fiangeformed with arcuate slots on diametric opposite sides of and concentric with the annular hub and formed with interconnecting radial slots extending from the outer edge of the base flange to one end of each arcuate slot to provide a pair of arcuate fingers extending belo-w'the base'flange at an angle to the 382,086 Herrick May 1, 1888 plane thereof. 934,488 Watrous Sept. 21, 1909 V 7 1,354,506 Moore Oct. 5, 1920 References-Citedin' the=file=ofthis patent I 7 2 134 74 yorgensen Dec 2 1939 UNITED T p yrmerrs 5 2,517,476 Frost Aug. 1, 1950 309,601 Broughton Dec. 23, 1884 I SMWAIM- 

